Advanced Biographies Search
Filter biographies using dates, occupations and places related to people's lives.
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1914–1974Doctor, paediatrician, family planning activist
Alice Mary Stanton was born in Auckland on 7 August 1914, the second of five children of Marjorie Aileen McMaster and her husband, Joseph Stanton, a solicitor and ultimately a Supreme Court judge. Educated at Hilltop School, Epsom, and Diocesan High School for Girls, she was determined to be a...
Story: Bush, Alice Mary
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1875–1950Civil engineer
As city engineer for over 20 years, Walter Ernest Bush played a leading part in modernising the physical infrastructure of Auckland. Walter was born at Kingston, Surrey, England on 8 September 1875, the son of Emily Mary Rowden and her husband, John Bush, a linen draper. At the age of 16 he...
Story: Bush, Walter Ernest
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1885–1960Principal, educationalist, historian
Arthur Gordon Butchers was born at Brunswick, Victoria, Australia, on 11 February 1885, the third son of Methodist minister Barnard Butchers and his wife, Susan Ann Cope. At the Church of England Grammar School, Geelong, and the University of Melbourne, Butchers was a brilliant student with an...
Story: Butchers, Arthur Gordon
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1872–1936Artist, war artist
George Edmund Butler was born in Southampton, Hampshire, England, on 15 January 1872. In 1883 he emigrated with his parents, Joseph Cawte Butler and his wife, Jane Tiller, to New Zealand where his father established himself as a builder with premises in Cuba Street, Wellington. After completing...
Story: Butler, George Edmund
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1886–1962Artist
Grace Ellen Cumming was born on 23 December 1886 at Richmond Grove, Invercargill, the daughter of Jane Cameron and her husband, William Forbes Cumming, a carter and contractor. After her father's death in 1889, the family moved north. Grace was educated at Norsewood School, and from around 1903...
Story: Butler, Grace Ellen
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1862–1934Sawmiller, timber merchant
William James Butler was born at Leamington, Warwickshire, England, on 18 March 1858, the son of Jane Matilda Long and her husband, James Butler, a master linen draper. His brother Joseph was born at Leamington on 1 March 1862. William sailed to New Zealand on the Atrato in 1874 with an older...
Story: Butler, Joseph
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1883–1947Sculptor
Margaret Mary Butler was born in Greymouth on 30 April 1883, the youngest of four children of Irish parents Edward Butler, the Grey County engineer, and his wife, Mary Delaney. After Edward's death in August 1884 the family moved to Wellington, where Mary became a prosperous hotel-keeper....
Story: Butler, Margaret Mary
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1925–2015Children’s literature advocate, bookseller, author, teacher
Dorothy Butler’s life was dominated by books and the role of story in children’s lives. She urged parents to read to their children, stressing that ‘Books can be bridges between children and parents, and children and the world’.1 Her love of books, which began during her own childhood, became...
Story: Butler, Muriel Dorothy
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1901–1995Seaman, trade unionist, communist, local politician
Peter Michael Butler was born in Whiteabbey, County Antrim, Ireland, on 31 May 1901, the youngest of nine children of Jane Gormley, a dressmaker, and her husband, John Butler, a flax-dresser. Before Peter was two years old his father died, plunging the family into poverty. Although she had...
Story: Butler, Peter Michael
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1844–1851?–1905Criminal, murderer
The date of birth, the parentage and even the real name of Robert Butler are matters of mystery. He may have been born James Wilson, but in New Zealand he became notorious as Robert Butler. Police records state that he was born in Kilkenny, Ireland, or in Bury, Lancashire, England; his date of...
Story: Butler, Robert
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1835–1902Explorer, pastoralist, writer, artist, musician
Samuel Butler was born probably on 4 December 1835 at Langar Rectory, Nottinghamshire, England, and was baptised on 17 December 1835. He was the second child of the Reverend Thomas Butler and his wife, Fanny Worsley. He was educated at Shrewsbury School from 1848 to 1854 and St John's College,...
Story: Butler, Samuel
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1863–1921Horse driver and trainer, equestrian
Registered at birth and at marriage as Isabel and at death as Isabella, the youngest daughter and fifth child of Robert Thomas Button and his wife, Anna Mary Pymar, was known throughout her life as Bella. She was born at Kaiapoi, Canterbury, New Zealand, on 9 October 1863. Her parents...
Story: Button, Isabel
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1872–1950Landscape gardener, nurseryman
Alfred William Buxton was born on 17 September 1872 at Hanley, Staffordshire, England, the son of Ann Johnson, a painter of pottery, and her husband, Alfred Buxton, a labourer. The family arrived in New Zealand probably in 1886. Young Alfred was immediately apprenticed to Thomas Abbott,...
Story: Buxton, Alfred William
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1795/1796?–1888Teacher, businesswoman
Mary Ann Streetin was born in England probably in 1795 or 1796. About 1827 or 1828, possibly at Stoke Newington, Middlesex, she married Harry Bridger Buxton. They had five children: Sophia Streetin, John Parker, Henry, and two who died in infancy, Bridger in England, and Martha on the Adelaide...
Story: Buxton, Mary Ann
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1862–1943Teacher, journalist, feminist
Dolce Ann Cabot was born at Christchurch, New Zealand, on 25 November 1862, the eldest daughter of Louisa Augusta Kunkel, whose father was a Prussian army officer, and her husband, Thomas Cabot, a farmer and language teacher from Jersey. After 1865 the family lived mainly on their farm at...
Story: Cabot, Dolce Ann
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fl. 1810–1826Pakeha-Maori, sealer, interpreter
The story of James Caddell, who was taken prisoner by Māori on Stewart Island in 1810 and then grew up among his captors, is an extraordinary one.
James Caddell is said to have been a lad of only 16 when he arrived off South Cape, Stewart Island, in the sealer Sydney Cove. Five sailors...
Story: Caddell, James
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1847–1905Sawmiller, politician
Alfred Jerome Cadman was born in Sydney, Australia, on 17 June 1847, the son of Jerome Cadman, a cabinet-maker, and his wife, Ann Hildyard. The family came to Auckland, New Zealand, in 1848. Jerome Cadman owned and operated a sawmill in the Coromandel goldfield from 1855 and was later a...
Story: Cadman, Alfred Jerome
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1898–1966Anatomist, medical superintendent, writer
John Cairney was born in Greymouth on 8 October 1898, the son of Elizabeth (Lily) Bramwell and her husband, John Cairney, a Dunedin-born jeweller. His father’s professional precision and dexterity almost certainly contributed to Cairney’s own skill as an anatomist, the first of three distinct...
Story: Cairney, John
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1895–1980Military aviator, farmer
One of New Zealand's greatest aviators, Keith Logan Caldwell was by his own account born in Wellington, New Zealand, on 16 October 1895. He was the son of David Robert Caldwell, a merchant, and his wife, Mary Dunlop McKerrow. The family moved to Auckland when Keith was still young. He was...
Story: Caldwell, Keith Logan
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1891–1980Teacher, agricultural instructor, scientific administrator
Francis Raymond Callaghan was born at Lincoln, Canterbury, on 15 April 1891, the son of Irish Catholic parents Bridget Moran and her husband, Bernard Bryan Callaghan, a farmer. Frank attended the local primary school, where his results in the Junior National Scholarship examinations gained him...
Story: Callaghan, Francis Raymond